NAME
html2ps - convert HTML to PostScript
SYNOPSIS
html2ps [ -2cdDFghHLnORtTuUv ] [ -b URL ] [ -C string ] [ -e encoding ]
[ -f file[:file[:...]] ] [ -i num ] [ -k file ] [ -l lang ] [ -m num ]
[ -M num ] [ -N num ] [ -o file ] [ -r path ] [ -s num ] [ -S string ]
[ -W string ] [ -x num ] [ URL|file ]
DESCRIPTION
The program html2ps converts HTML to PostScript. The HTML code can be
retrieved from one or more URL:s or local files, specified as
parameters on the command line. If no parameter is given, html2ps
reads from standard input.
Note: To avoid unnecessary network traffic, one can rebuild an already
generated PostScript file with new options. This is done by running
html2ps with the new options, and with the old PostScript file as input
(not applicable for all options).
OPTIONS
All options have a short (case sensitive), and a long (case
insensitive) form.
-2 --twoup
Two column (2-up) output. The default is one column per page.
-b URL --base URL
Use URL as a base to expand relative references for in-line
images. This is useful if you have downloaded a document to a
local file. The URL should then be the URL of the original
document.
-c --check
Check the syntax of the HTML file (using an external syntax
checker). The default is to not make a syntax check.
-C string --toc string
Generate a table of contents (ToC). The value should be a string
consisting of one of the letters ’f’, ’h’, or ’t’, optionally
combined with the letter ’b’:
b The ToC will be printed first. This requires that
Ghostscript is installed.
f The ToC will be generated from the links in the converted
document.
h The ToC will be generated from headings and titles in the
converted documents. Note that if the document author for
some strange reason has chosen to use some other means to
represent the headings than the HTML elements H1,...,H6,
you are out of luck!
t The ToC will be generated from links having the attribute
rev=TOC in the converted document.
-d --debug
Generate debugging information. You should always use this
option when reporting problems with html2ps.
-D --dsc --DSC
Generate DSC compliant PostScript. This requires Ghostscript and
can take quite some time to do. Note that a PostScript file
generated with this option cannot be used as input to html2ps
for reformatting later.
-e encoding --encoding encoding
The document encoding. Currently recognized values are
ISO-8859-1, EUC-JP, SHIFT-JIS, and ISO-2022-JP (other EUC-xx
encodings may also work). The default is ISO-8859-1.
-f file[:file[:...]] --rcfile file[:file[:...]]
A colon separated list of configuration file names to use
instead of the default personal configuration file
$HOME/.html2psrc. Definitions made in one file override
definitions in previous files (the last file in the list has
highest precedence). An empty file name (as in ’:file’,
’file1::file3’, or ’file:’) will expand to the default personal
file. The environment variable HTML2PSPATH is used to specify
the directories where to search for these files. (Note: this is
only supposed to be used on the command line, not in a
configuration file.)
-F --frame
Draw a frame around the text on each page. The default is to not
draw a frame.
-g --grayscale
Convert colour images to grayscale images. Note that the
PostScript file will be smaller when the images are converted to
grayscale. The default is to generate colour images.
-h --help
Show usage information.
-H --hyphenate
Hyphenate the text. This requires TeX hyphenation pattern files.
-i num --scaleimage num
Scale in-line images with a factor num The default is 1.
-k file --cookie file
Enable cookie support, using a netscape formatted cookie file
(requires libwww-perl).
-l lang --language lang
Specifies the language of the document (overrides an eventual
LANG attribute of the BODY element). The language should be
given according to RFC1766 (ftp://ftp.nordu.net/rfc/rfc1766.txt)
and ISO 639 (http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm).
-L --landscape
Generate code for printing in landscape mode. The default is
portrait mode.
-m num --scalemath num
Scale mathematical formulas with a factor num The default is 1.
-M num --mainchapter num
Specifies the start number for automatic numbering of headings
(by setting the seq-number parameter), the default is 1.
-n --number
Insert page numbers. The default is to not number the pages.
-N num --startno num
Specifies the starting page number, the default is 1.
-o file --output file
Write the PostScript code to file. The default is to write to
standard output.
-O --original
Use PostScript original images if they exist. For example, if a
document contains an image figure.gif, and an encapsulated
PostScript file named figure.ps exists in the same directory,
that file will be use instead. This only work for documents read
as local files. Note: if the PostScript file is large or
contains bitmap images, this must be combined with the -D
option. In HTML 4.0 this can be achieved in a much better way
with:
<OBJECT data="figure.ps" type="application/postscript">
<OBJECT data="figure.gif" type="image/gif">
<PRE>[Maybe some ASCII art for text browsers]</PRE>
</OBJECT>
</OBJECT>
-r path --rootdir path
When a document is read from a local file, this value specifies
a base directory for resolving relative links starting with "/".
Typically, this should be the directory where your web server’s
home page resides.
-R --xref
Insert cross references at every link to within the set of
converted documents.
-s num --scaledoc num
Scale the entire document with a factor num The default is 1.
-S string --style string
This option complements/overrides definitions made in the
configuration files. The string must follow the configuration
file syntax. (Note: this is only supposed to be used on the
command line, not in a configuration file.)
-t --titlepage
Generate a title page. The default is to not generate one.
-T --text
Text mode, ignore images. The default is to include the images.
-u --underline
Underline text that constitutes a hypertext link. The default is
to not underline.
-U --colour
Produce colour output for text and background, when specified.
The default is black text on white background (mnemonic: coloUr
;-).
-v --version
Print information about the current version of html2ps.
-W string --web string
Process a web of documents by recursively retrieve and convert
documents that are referenced with hyperlinks. When dealing with
remote documents it will of course be necessary to impose
restrictions, to avoid downloading the entire web... The value
should be a string consisting of one of the letters ’a’, ’b’,
’l’, ’r’, or ’s’, optionally combined with a combination of the
letters ’p’, ’L’, and a positive integer:
a Follow all links.
b Follow only links to within the same directory, or below,
as the start document.
l Follow only links specified with "<LINK rel=NEXT>" in the
document.
p Prompt for each remote document. This mode will
automatically be entered after the first 50 documents.
r Follow only relative links.
s Follow only links to within the same server as the start
document.
L With this option, the order in which the documents are
processed will be: first all top level documents, then
the documents linked to from these etc. For example, if
the document A has links to B and C, and B has a link to
D, the order will be A-B-C-D. By default, each document
will be followed by the first document it links to etc;
so the default order for the example is A-B-D-C.
# A positive integer giving the number of recursive levels.
The default is 4 (when the option is present).
-x num --duplex num
Generate postscript code for single or double sided printing.
No default, valid values are:
0 Single sided.
1 Double sided.
2 Double sided, opposite page reversed (tumble mode).
BUGS
(This is incomplete.)
The CELLSPACING attribute of the TABLE element is not implemented as
described in the specification; instead the value of the CELLPADDING
attribute is increased by half the value of CELLSPACING.
Rendering HTML tables well is a non-trivial task. For "real" tables,
that is representation of tabular data, html2ps usually generates
reasonably good output. When tables are used for layout purposes, the
result varies from good to useless. This is because a table cell is
never broken across pages. So if a table contains a cell with a lot of
content, the entire table may have to be scaled down in size in order
to make this cell fit on a single page. Sometimes this may even result
in unreadable output.
Page breaks are occasionally done in bad places: for example directly
after a (long) heading, and before the last line in a paragraph.
ENVIRONMENT
HTML2PSPATH
This variable specifies the directories to search for
configuration files. It should be a colon separated list of
directory names. Use a dot ’.’ to denote the current directory.
An empty directory name (as in ’:dir’, ’dir1::dir3’, or ’dir:’)
will expand to the directory where the global configuration file
is. The default value is ’.:’, that is: search the current
directory first, and then the global one.
FILES
$HOME/.html2psrc
User configuration file, see html2psrc(5).
SEE ALSO
html2psrc(5), perl(1), setlocale(3), strftime(3), weblint(1)
VERSION
This manpage describes html2ps version 1.0 beta5.
AVAILABILITY
http://user.it.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html
AUTHOR
Jan Karrman (jan@it.uu.se)